1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program therefor. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program able to, for example, apply background music (BGM) to a collection of content such as photographic data, wherein the BGM is reminiscent of the time at which the photographic data was acquired.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example, in a digital camera, digital image data (to be hereinafter referred to as photo data where appropriate) obtained by imaging a subject is recorded together with metadata that includes information such as a date and time indicating when the photo data was acquired.
In addition, as digital cameras have become more prevalent, a variety of management applications for managing photo data on a computer are now being distributed (and/or sold). Using such management applications, photo data is separated into groups. For example, photo data may be grouped on the basis of the shooting date and time included in the metadata, wherein a plurality of photo data having identical year, month, and day values for the shooting date is grouped into a single group.
Meanwhile, users typically organize photographs acquired by a silver salt camera (i.e., a camera using silver halide-containing film) by first separating the photographs according to criteria such as the shooting date and time, shooting location, and by event. A user may then organize the photographs by arranging the photographs acquired on the same date, at the same location, or at a single event on a single page or on a plurality of sequential pages in an album.
Similarly, there exist management applications for managing photo data by using an electronic album (hereinafter, also referred to as a scrapbook) that imitates the function of an album for organizing physical photographs.
When organizing photo data using a scrapbook, metadata appended to the photo data is first read, and photo data having appended metadata that is similar or identical is then collected and arranged on the respective pages of a scrapbook. In other words, a collection of photo data that was acquired on the same date, at the same location, or at a single event is arranged on the respective pages of a scrapbook.
By thus viewing a scrapbook having arranged therein a collection of photo data sorted according to similar or identical metadata, the user is able to enjoy viewing related photo data, and is also able to discover previously unnoticed relationships existing among the photo data.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Application JP 2006-86622 discloses a proposed information processing apparatus that functions as follows. When the user selects a photo album storing still images to be displayed, and then subsequently selects background music (BGM) for playback, the information processing apparatus displays the still images processed with effects associated with the mood of the one or more songs being played as BGM.